Santa Cruz County Local News

Under two new laws, employers in California can’t ask workers about their use of cannabis outside the workplace and can’t use hair or urine tests. Employees in construction are excluded, as are applicants for federal jobs with background checks.

Under a new law, employees in California are guaranteed five paid sick days a year, two days more than previously. Worker advocacy groups say the benefit is needed, but business groups warn of additional costs.

Novelist Jonathan Franzen looks at how trap-neuter-release policies in feral cat colonies have troubling consequences for city residents, local wildlife and even the felines themselves.

In downtown Oakland, a new 19-story apartment tower with 236 units could be left sitting vacant because of a shortage of components required to connect the building to the electrical grid.

During the pandemic, Gary Butler and Denise Silva quietly opened a bookstore in Pleasure Point close to Capitola. Just two years later, Two Birds Books was named one of the country’s five best bookstores.

This past year, more than 1,000 bills went into effect, and most will become new laws in 2024. Plus, there are bills from previous years that are also scheduled to take effect after Jan. 1.

María Vela’s family has lived in East L.A. nearly 30 years, but new owners of her duplex asked her family to vacate by Christmas. Most evictions are due to nonpayment of rent, but owner move-ins also cause family displacement.

State audits of the University of California and the California State University found both systems have failed to comply with decades-old state and federal laws mandating the return of Native ancestral remains and cultural artifacts. Only UCLA and Cal State Long Beach have returned a majority of their collections.

A tribe’s bid for federal recognition is getting a boost from a member of Congress who introduced legislation to extend acknowledgement status to the Gabrielino/Tongva Nation and create a reservation within Los Angeles County.

For more than 16 years, Watsonville’s Nature Center operated out of a small trailer at Ramsay Park—the only free, bilingual environmental conservation center in the Monterey Bay region.

California's economy could use some holiday cheer. Here are 12 business needs for the coming year.

Sarah Grimes investigates reports of dead marine mammals up and down the coast. So when she began finding the decapitated bodies of harbor seal pups just a few miles north of Fort Bragg in 2016, she was on the case. Grimes wasn’t able to pin down the culprit until last year, with the help of a UCSC student.

The Bay Area added thousands of jobs, an upswing fueled by a South Bay hiring boom that provided a respite from months of employment losses for the nine-county region.

The Chico-based brewer has taken a more traditional approach to creating its non-alcoholic beer.

This year, 122 unhoused people died in Santa Cruz County. While friends, family and community members gathered to pay respects, speakers also expressed the need for better access to housing, health care and harm reduction.

Bring on the cute Nepalese dumplings and deli sandwiches the size of a suitcase. Give me all the caviar in Carmel and hotdogs at the dump.

The Bureau of Reclamation, which manages federal water such as the Central Valley Project, has a new regional director for the California-Great Basin Region.

The Dungeness crab season will open in the northernmost regions of California in early January. The season remains closed in the Monterey Bay region until at least Jan. 11 due to the continued presence of humpback whales.

The financial aid application for undocumented students is cumbersome and confusing, and many students aren’t completing the forms. A new law streamlines the process.

The 33-year old Mexican-born man—who from toddler age has been a permanent legal resident of California—has reported abuse, unsanitary conditions and threats of force-feeding before his release from immigration detention in April.